By: Sheena LyonnaisJuly 20, 2009
New York City’s TV/TV has become a little bit of an MTV sensation. Their songs have been played in episodes of the Hills and the Real World and singer Josh Ocean coached a girl on how to be a rockstar on an episode of MADE. They’ve been played on Living Lohan and Flash Gordon, been featured in magazines from Alternative Press to Pop Star and their song “Get It, Get It” is on the game NHL 2009.
“Growing up listening to NOFX and Bad Religion it was like MTV was the total enemy. At the same time, I feel MTV has really gone out and actively supported an unsigned band like us, which helps to change the music industry in a positive way. I’m totally not afraid of our involvement. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we have involvements with MTV as an unsigned band at all. I think it’s a great thing actually,” Ocean said.
The July 10 Warped Tour show in Toronto was the band’s first time performing in Canada. Despite playing at the same time as veterans Anti-Flag, there were a ton of people watching their high-energy performance, proof the unconventional method is working for the young band.
MTV took notice after the band sent them a copy of their first EP. The company licensed it for television use right away and began placing it on their bigger shows. The feel good dancey pop rock is what helped establish their name, but the band shifts slightly from this into a more rock-driven direction on their new EP Not Enough Red.
“What is cool about the new EP is that it is the music we want to make. That is TV/TV, or at least it’s the beginning of what we want to be as a band. The first EP, it means a lot to us, it’s done a lot for us, it was still very much us, but since we started touring and things started really going with the band it made us think about what kind of band we wanted to be and this EP was our first chance to say this is the type of band we want to be. That’s why this EP means so much to us,” Ocean said.
“We sort of moved away from the clean pop polished sound and we tried to make big sounding rock songs instead of nice and poppy make you feel good songs. These songs will make you feel good as well, but I think they’re just more rocking,” bassist Matt Walczak added.
In order to move away from their uber-pop, they enlisted help from American musician/producer William James "Bleu" McAuley III, who has worked with Boys Like Girls, Ace Enders and…the Jonas Brothers.
The experience was intimidating but crucial for TV/TV. Bleu really wanted to bring out the best in all of them, and used unconventional methods to loosen them up such as getting them plastered or making Ocean take his shirt off, the boys said.
“We recorded it in East LA at Hobby Shop. Really cool spot. The Bravery did some stuff there recently. A lot of bands have recorded there. We actually did some Saxophone. The owner of the studio was the touring saxophone player for Foreigner and he plays saxophones on one of our songs. He was there, we asked him and he just went in there and ripped it. We had this idea for a sax solo and it just so happened that the owner of the studio was a really good sax player. He played tambourines too,” Ocean said.
Until TV/TV return to Canada, you can check them out and listen to their new song “Fire Island Freakout” at www.myspace.com/tvtv.